Councillors brush off calls to make Olympic bid corporation subject to public scrutiny, calling the request ‘disrespectful’

CALGARY—City councillors on Monday criticized a call to make the Calgary Olympic bid exploration committee subject to Freedom of Information scrutiny, saying it was not a “thoughtful” attempt at increasing transparency.

The motion, signed by councillors Jeromy Farkas, Sean Chu and Joe Magliocca, proposes making Calgary BidCo, the private Olympic bid corporation, subject to Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) legislation. Possibilities for bringing the corporation under the regulations are making BidCo a City of Calgary entity or approaching the federal and provincial governments to table legislation to make it covered under the act.

City solicitor Glenda Cole said no city funds have been directed to entities that have declared themselves for or against an Olympic bid. (Elizabeth Cameron / StarMetro)

BidCo is not currently subject to FOIP because it is a private, rather than public, body.

Farkas said he felt a subsequent motion to refer the matter to an Aug. 21 session of the Olympic oversight committee instead of discussing it in council was “an attempt to just bury” the concern.

“To send this notice of motion to the last week of August, I think it’s undemocratic and it’s also illustrative of the process so far,” he said.

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“We have made midnight decision after midnight decision and this is not hyperbole. … There has not been the opportunity for the public, for the media, to hold us to account.”

Councillors Diane Colley-Urquhart and Evan Woolley both criticized the motion as “gaslighting.”

“To imply that we have these clandestine meetings that go in the darkness of night … and we’re cooking up all kinds of stuff, is an affront to democracy,” Colley-Urquhart said.

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City solicitor Glenda Cole said no city funds have been directed to entities that have declared themselves for or against an Olympic bid.

She added that because the potential Calgary 2026 Winter Olympics bid is still in a “competitive phase,” some information would remain confidential even if BidCo was subject to FOIP.

Woolley, the Olympic bid committee chair, said he saw the motion as being “of great disrespect” to city council’s time.

“We’re spending an immense amount of time and energy at this committee … I think it shows great disrespect to the city solicitor, who has explained this at committee many, many times.”

Councillor Jyoti Gondek also called the option of connecting BidCo to the city in order to bring it under FOIP regulations “a ridiculous conflict of interest.”

“I don’t want the City of Calgary to be in any way tied to a BidCo. We shouldn’t be. We should be evaluating a BidCo on its own merits.”

During a break in the council meeting, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the notice of motion has some valuable points about transparency, but it ultimately isn’t feasible — especially since the Alberta legislature isn’t currently in session.

“I’d be very much in favour of a philosophical motion that says, ‘We will continue to have maximum transparency,’” he said. “This particular mechanism of asking the provincial government to change legislation when the provincial government doesn’t even meet until November ... it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Farkas added that he’s “blown away” by the debate around the motion.

“I signed on to the notice of motion with Councillor Chu more thinking it was sort of oversight, a housekeeping amendment, something that is a matter of course,” he said.

“I feel like it’s so fundamental that I don’t know where opponents are coming from. I just can’t relate to them.”

Further discussion of the motion is set for later in the council agenda.

Madeline Smith is a reporter/photographer with StarMetro Calgary. Follow her on Twitter: @meksmith